The present invention relates to absorbent articles, and more particularly to surgical dressings.
A number of surgical dressings have been proposed in the past for use on patients. Although such dressings may be suitable for a particular application, the dressings have failed to account for the varying conditions of the patient's wound. The initial stage of wound healing is characterized by passage of relatively large amounts of body fluids, and it is thus necessary to provide a relatively absorbent dressing to capture the fluids during this stage of the healing process. Further, it is desirable that the dressing utilized during this stage be very porous, such that granulating tissue is permitted to grow into the dressing, and debris from the wound is removed with the dressing when withdrawn from the wound.
However, once the wound reaches the maturation stage and the effusion of body fluids diminishes, the dressing utilized during the initial state becomes inadequate for the wound and may disrupt the healing process. At this stage, the dressing should have absorbent characteristics, but should be relatively nonadherent to the wound.